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Enumclaw grad wins basketball title in Italy

Former Enumclaw High cager Tony Binetti has returned from his hardwood exploits in the Italian League, where his Banco Dinamo team won the Italian League Lega Due (Division II) championship.

Binetti’s team hails from the city of Sasseri on the island of Sardinia.

“Basketball is the only spectator sport in Sasseri, since the island doesn’t have a soccer team,” said Binetti, who earned Division II all-American accolades following his senior season at Seattle Pacific University. “That city has had a basketball team for 50 years and finished second in 2009. So, it was pretty cool that the club celebrated its 50th anniversary by actually winning the whole thing this year.”

Binetti has nothing but good things to say about the fans who follow Banco Dinamo.

“The basketball fans in Sasseri pack the arena every night, hours before each contest,” he said. “They were thrilled and were partying in the streets until dawn the next day when we won the championship.”

Taking home the hardware required Banco Dinamo winning a best-of-five series, which prolonged the team’s postseason by about a month.

Binetti said by winning the Lega Due title (basically the Italian B League), Sasseri’s players will now be exchanging elbows in the key with the Italian League’s big boys (Lega A), which could cause a salary restructuring for the Sasseri crew.

“I will find out in about another month if I will be returning to Sasseri next year,” said the European hoops journeyman, who has played for a half dozen teams in and around the Mediterranean since departing Seattle Pacific.

Now back in Enumclaw, Binetti is busy organizing the basketball camp he manages in conjunction with the Enumclaw Parks and Recreation Department.

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